The present invention relates to head protection methods and apparatus and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for producing a head covering that substantially enhances the protection of the wearer in the event of a single high impact force event or repeated low impact force events where the force(s) could cause concussive injury. Various aspects of the present invention are further directed to the quick and safe removal of a facemask of a helmet to afford immediate assessment of injury and treatment thereof by an injured player.
Recent medical research reveals that concussions and cumulative head impacts can lead to lifelong neurological consequences. It is currently believed that repeated brain injuries, such as concussions, may lead to diseases later in life, such as depression, chronic traumatic encephalophathy (CTE), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and early Alzheimer's. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimates 1.6-3.8 million sport-related brain injuries annually in the United States. Of these 300,000 are attributed to youth football players, some of whom die from their injuries every year—a tragedy difficult for their parents and families to recover from. The severity of the issue touching both the nation's youth and professional athletes has led to thousands of lawsuits and Congressional Hearings.
Over the past eighty years there have been significant modifications in helmet design. Yet despite advances in technology there is still debate as to whether existing helmets offer significant protection against concussion and traumatic brain injury. None of the football helmets on the market today offer what most would consider adequate protection against concussions and traumatic brain injuries. Studies have found that the 1930s Goldsmith leatherhead helmet actually outperformed several contemporary football helmets in terms of protecting against concussion and brain injury. Teaching proper hitting and tackling techniques, promoting isometric and isokinetic cervical strengthening programs, and continued concussion awareness and education, are recommended means of protecting athletes from the consequences of concussion and traumatic brain injury. But a better helmet design is also required to reduce the incidences of injury presently experienced by athletes, especially football players.
The plastic football helmet was invented in 1940 by John T. Riddell and his son John T. Riddell Jr. Dr. Richard Schneider invented an inflatable bladder for use inside a football helmet and started mass-producing the Air™ Helmet in the early 1970s, but it was heavy and did not breath well. Rigid polycarbonate alloy plastic helmets and vinyl coated steel alloy face masks were the norm in the 1980s and 1990, as well as today. Despite reports that a more spherical designed helmet purportedly reduced the incidences of concussion by 31%, a Senate Commerce Committee in 2011 found that there was no substantial evidence to support such a finding. Most existing designs incorporate a hard, inflexible outer shell and employ various schemes to create compressive shock absorption between the outer shell and the head of the user. Most of such designs focus on spreading out impact force energy and transferring it to a pad system adjacent to the wearer's head. But helmet manufacturers are forced to design these pads to provide proper fit, thus sacrificing safety for wearer comfort and in the process, compromising the production of a helmet design that is concussion resistant.
Current helmet certification standards are based on testing parameters that were developed in the 1960s, which focus on the attenuation of linear impact and prevention of skull fracture. The focus of headgear design has always been focused on attenuating linear impact. But recent studies indicate that both linear as well as rotational acceleration plays an important role in the pathophysiology of brain injury. Although nearly every head impact has a linear component and a rotational component, rotational acceleration is greatest when a tangential blow is sustained. A football player's facemask can act like a lever arm when impacted from the side, and can therefore apply large torsional forces to the head, which can easily result in brain trauma. The emphasis and direction of helmet innovations has seemingly failed to address this issue. Various embodiments of the present invention as described herein, address it head on.
Existing designs for football helmets incorporate a hard, inflexible outer shell and employ various schemes to create compressive shock absorption between the outer shell and the head of the user, thus merely spreading out an impact force's energy and transferring it to a pad system adjacent to the wearer's head. But spreading the force over a larger area, while reducing skull fracture and reducing the force per square inch, does not, in itself, reduce the total force acting on the pad system and the users head.
In addition to linear and rotational acceleration, translational impact is another factor that has largely been discounted by helmet designers, as their focus has again been directed to attenuating linear impact. Football players sustain mild TBI mostly by translational forces because the shell of the helmet allows the players to slide relative to one another, limiting head rotational accelerations. The headgear presently employed by the NFL reduces concussion risk by using thicker and more energy-absorbing padding on the side and back of the helmets and around the ears. Thus, there is a long-felt but unsolved need to provide a helmet that, in addition to addressing the linear impacts experienced by a player, also addresses the translational and rotational acceleration of the head in an effort to reduce the likelihood of brain injury.
There is also a great and urgent need to design helmets, especially football helmets, such that their facemasks can be quickly removed/detached from the helmets in a manner that does not cause further trauma to an injured player due to the time and physical manipulation of his/her head and neck when attempting to assess the player's condition and provide treatment. There is a need for a light weight helmet having a design that reduces the incidence of injury, that can better absorb contacts that would otherwise cause head injuries, and that further provides a way to detach a facemask from the helmet in a time-sensitive manner.